Exploring Innovations at GeoBusiness Expo 2024: Our Experience and Key Takeaways

We had an amazing time attending the GeoBusiness Expo in London! As attendees, we were there to network, gather inspiration and stay updated on the latest industry trends. It was fantastic to connect with so many professionals and enthusiasts who share our passion for geospatial technology, in addition to touching base with our partners who also attended the event. The insights and ideas we gained from the various sessions and discussions are sure to inspire our future projects.

Ben Gilson from Arup talked about the impact of the subsurface on sustainable development. Ben set the scene by explaining how the ground conditions around london (linked to the solid and superficial geology) explain much of the pattern of development. Historically, the cost or sheer impracticality of building certain structures precluded a location. Whilst we can overcome some of these challenges now with engineering advances, the sustainability around significant foundations (notably significant concrete usage) should also be taken into account in addition to any financial or other considerations.

Iris Craimer from ArchAI provided an inspiring talk revealing how new techniques are enabling automatic classification of vegetation types which will provide powerful information for ecologists and others moving forward. Given much of the hyperbole around "AI", it was refreshing to see its application in a practical use case applicable nationally. The important take away for ourselves was that the vision and understanding of ecological challenges and practices from Iris and the team at ArchAI was fundamental. Only having this understanding of the required outcome could "AI" become a part of the toolset to accomplish the results efficiently.

Tom Timms of Verisk provided some fascinating context to the challenges in providing data attributes for every building in Great Britain as a part of their work delivering data to Ordnance Survey for it's National Geographic Database (NGD). We look forward to revealing more about the data outcomes and the benefits to our customer as we bring the NGD content into our product range over the coming months.